Keep Middle Schoolers Motivated in the Last Week of School

One week and counting...how do you keep middle schoolers motivated and on-task for the last full week of school?  It's not an easy task.  It is one that takes creativity and planning...especially planning.

Teachers think that the last week of school should be devoted to the last week of school checklist items...clean desks, inventory technology and software, tidy file cabinets and that sort of thing. Unfortunately,
there is one small caveat to this plan...middle schoolers.

After 23 years of teaching middle schoolers, I don't have any easy answers, but I do have a few tips and tricks to keep you from going stir-crazy.

Keep'em busy and they won't drive you crazy!

• Plan, plan, and overplan...I know there are other events taking place in the school that will probably take up some class time: awards ceremonies, honors day, field day, talent shows.  But what if something happens? What if it rains on field day? What if awards ceremony only takes up one and a half class period?  If your school is like mine, you're always going to have the two middle lunch classes because you can't miss feeding the kiddos. So, have a plan even if your principal has said no lesson plans are due.  So what do I plan for?  Here are some ideas that might get you through some class periods:
• Reflection Books are an easy to make keepsake that students enjoy because it gives them a chance to express themselves with words and with pictures.  First, have the students create an easy to make foldable and fill it with entries like "my favorite school event," "my favorite school lunch," "the one lesson where I really 'got it'."  Be creative with the entries or let the students come up with their own.
• Kind Words Autograph Books are another easy and fun way to make memories.  First, have the students create a foldable and head each page with a "kind word."  Some examples might be "best read aloud voice," "most vocal supporter," "best mathematician," "best linguist,"...you get the picture.  Then, have students go around the room and have students autograph on the page that they think best summarizes their contribution to the school year.
• Read a picture book like The Best School Year Ever or A Fine, Fine School aloud to the students (or have some students stand in front of the class and read it aloud), then have students write their own stories about "the best school year ever" and share with the class.
• Write letters to next year's students that include envelopes and stickers for stamps.  Each student writes one letter of advice to a student for next year, shares the letter with this year's classmates (this way you can listen to the letters before they're put in the envelopes), and puts it in a sealed and "addressed" envelope.  This is a fantastic lesson that is important in this age of social media.
• Group Songs are creative and silly ways to get the students to work together. Put students in groups of three and tell them that their job is to create a song that best illustrates what they've learned this year. Tell them that they will be performing these songs for the entire class.  You can put any spin on these that you like...students could create a parody or a poem about the things that they've learned in your class.

• Don't let up for a moment...your students already think that the school year and "learning" are over so don't add to that by relaxing your rules and expectations for the students.  If you deter from your normal level of classroom management, the students will assume that you're finished "teaching," and it will only make a stressful time of year more stressful.

• Get student help in tidying up your classroom by making it a group game.  Assign a group of students a certain task like unplugging the computers or boxing up books, and tell them that the most efficient group will get a prize (this is also a great way of getting rid of stickers and little trinkets that you're going to throw away anyway).

• Enlist student help in creating your "back to school" bulletin boards.  Middle schoolers love to help their teachers create posters and bulletin boards and the idea of an "audience" of next year's students really makes them feel important.  This is also a creative way of using up all of those scraps and few pieces of construction paper that was probably heading for recycling anyway.

The end of the school year is one of the most stressful times of year, but with planning and creativity you can make it a little less so.

Here's hoping that you had a blessed year and a relaxing summer,

Melissa